A watercolour view of the garden front of Aston Hall, Birmingham, with figures promenading on the lawn and an artist's stool and easel in the foreground. Signed and dated at lower left: R.P.Leitch.1859. Inscribed in a different hand at lower right: 15 June 1858. Reproduced in a supplement of the Illustrated London News, featuring the royal visit to Birmingham, dated 3 July 1858.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Aston Hall on June 15, 1858, as part of their royal tour to Birmingham. The Jacobean Hall had recently been acquired by a private company and, as Victoria recorded in her journal, was "to be converted into a People's Museum & Park." The Queen and Prince Albert enjoyed lunch in the hall before the park was declared open to the public.

Richard Principal Leitch was the son of the royal watercolour tutor William Leighton Leitch, who taught Queen Victoria, her daughters and her daughter-in-law Princess (later Queen) Alexandra for almost twenty years. Richard was sent to Birmingham to cover the royal tour for the Illustrated London News, and was commanded to submit his portfolio of sketches to Victoria; the royal couple presumably then commissioned this watercolour and RCIN 920245, a depiction of Warwick Castle, for their own collection.

This watercolour was originally mounted in View Album VIII. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert compiled nine View Albums during their marriage. These albums contained watercolours and drawings documenting their life together and were arranged in chronological order. The albums were dismantled in the early twentieth century and rebound in new volumes both in a different arrangement and with additional items, but a written record of their original contents and arrangement still exists.